67: Save Time and Get More Done on Social Media with Deb Coman
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[00:00:00] JoAnn Krall: Welcome to episode 67 of Permission to be Messy. I'm your host, JoAnn Krall and today I have my very first guest, Deb Coman, and we're going to be talking about saving time and getting more done on social media. And before I have Deb introduce herself, I just want to let you know, even if you're not a business owner, I bet you, you can glean something, something from this.
And so Deb, thank you so much for trusting me. I know that word trust is going to come up a lot, but trusting me to be my very first guest. Um, so welcome.
[00:00:29] Deb Coman: Thank you so much. Of course I trust you and it's what we'll talk about today. Like you said, why that is and how that came about when we've never even met in person, but thank you so much for having me here today.
[00:00:41] JoAnn Krall: I'm excited. So, um, if you could introduce yourself for my guests, that would be wonderful. Yes. my guests. I love it. Hold on.
[00:00:49] Deb Coman: All our listeners, right? I love our listeners and viewers, everyone who's here listening in. I'm Deb Coman. I'm a content conversion strategist and a copywriter, and I help business owners find the buyers in their email list and save time and get more done on social media in a way that is all about building trust and relationships.
First, and then also using that to help build your business, of course, if you're, if you're in business. And like JoAnn said, to those of you who may not have a business online, there's, we all pretty much have access to social media. So I think using the same strategies we'll talk about for business owners, you can use them yourself to, to just control what you see in the feed and have a better experience online.
[00:01:43] JoAnn Krall: Yes, I love that. I mean, because even many of us that are business owners, social media, we use for personal too. And that's what, that's one thing that can get us, you know, off track when we're trying to use it for business and we get sucked into personal things and we all know, I mean, it's been turbulent times on social media for many years.
But it's getting, it's getting worse and worse as the years go by. So, I think that's why people tend to avoid social media. They or they get sucked in completely. So what can you tell us? that will, how do I want to word this? It'll make it work with them without all those negative side effects.
[00:02:22] Deb Coman: Yeah. So there's the strategy that I use the most than what we'll talk about today.
That's helped me build my business, help you and I get to meet each other, get to know each other, get to refer people to each other, all came from the strategies that we're going to talk about today. They're very simple to do, and yet a lot of people are not doing it. So, for some of us, it comes naturally, and that's kind of how I just showed up this way from the beginning about 10 years ago, but it's all about engaging.
And when we think of engaging on social media, we often think of all the engagement we want on our posts, right? We put all this time and effort in and we can't wait to see what people have to say back or questions and that sort of thing. I'm talking about the engagement on other people's posts and other people's content.
And if you're using social media as a business owner to consume, to learn, to keep your, uh, your thumb on the pulse, so to speak, you need to be consuming what else is out there and if you are not a business owner, that's likely what you're doing more of is consuming, right? You're scrolling, you're checking things out.
However, you do not have to be at the whim of the algorithm or what the platform serves up in your feed when you use this strategy. And it starts with seeking out the content that you want to engage with and, and any of us who have been around, JoAnn, I know you know this, we get to curate our feed by what we engage with.
And it might feel like a chicken and an egg type thing, like, well, how do I get this started? And in my process, we create a list of who we want to have meaningful connection or what topics. Um, Okay. What conversations, what type of posts, and then we go open up the platform and we look for them. So we're not just endlessly scrolling, we're not just looking at what's there.
Like you mentioned before, if you may be going on there for business, but you start seeing your friend's posts and you start looking at that and watching video and responding, you're going to lose the thread of where you intended to go with your business time. So this is another way to kind of take that control back and seek out the content that you want to see.
[00:04:49] JoAnn Krall: I love that. I love that. That's pretty much how I've, I think, since day one, I mean, the early days of social media, that's exactly what it was. I mean, it's evolved. So if you didn't, if you, if you didn't kind of stick to the old ways, you get sucked into that endless struggle and just wasting time. It's just, it's so easy to do.
So, um, what would you say? To somebody that's already spending time on social media, but they're not seeing any results in their business.
[00:05:22] Deb Coman: Yeah, I would first ask people to take a good look at what your practices are and how, well, one, are you engaging on other people's content? Uh, two, is that the content and the conversations that you really want to be showing up in?
So if we're talking about for business, it's conversations, people, accounts, brands that make sense to what you do in the world, what your services are, what your clients are dealing with. So it might not be the services exactly. It will also include the challenges that they have that are related to the service that you provide or adjacent to it, right?
Sometimes there's a group of issues that we have as business owners and our program might solve one part of that, but we can enter into conversations that have to do with those other adjacent areas because that's where the people are. And it does relate to what we do in some way. So that's the, that second piece is to go in and look for those.
And then I would ask, how are you commenting? So people will say, Oh no, I do this. I comment. I engage. Are you just saying congratulations? Thumbs up. Good job. Love it. Those are easy. Um. They're not, uh, useless, you know, or, or meaningless, but they're really not meaningful. So what I teach and work with my clients on is create a conversation where you're expanding And, and really, um, taking it another step, uh, reading what they're posting or watching the video that they share, or going over and reading the blog that they're mentioning, so that your response can be really something more meaty that lets them know you're, you're curious, you're interested, you want to have a conversation with them and you want to connect with them.
If you're doing all of that, you will get results. You absolutely will. I've seen people do it in a very short amount of time. Start getting new subscribers to their email list, start getting new followers, start having conversations where people say, I want to learn more about your services and straight up buying from you straight from social, which has happened to me, has happened to a lot of my clients too.
[00:07:52] JoAnn Krall: Yeah, I, as you talk about that, I mean, this is something I've always been passionate about and I like to tell people if you're, if you're on social media and somebody makes a post and you just give a thumbs up picture yourself doing that in person.
Like, if you were talking to somebody and they, you know, poured their heart out about something, would you just do a thumbs up or, like you say, congratulations? No, I mean, that would be so awkward in person. And I know it doesn't feel awkward to many people, but if you're focusing on your business, like you said, it's just a waste of time.
I mean, it really doesn't, it doesn't engage anything. There's no connection like you.
[00:08:29] Deb Coman: Yes. Right. There's no connection with the person who's posting and you're not going to stand out. We've all seen those posts, right? With 20 congratulations, good job, and emojis, and nothing else. And then we see the one where the person says, Oh, my goodness I know how hard you worked on this. I remember us talking about when you first had the idea and you were launching and it's so amazing to see you're going to help people with this service that you do. Well, suddenly that comment stands out. Right and, and other people, we, we need to remember that when we're engaging, it's not just for the person who posted a lot of people are watching and noticing and paying attention and they will see that.
And then what do they know about you? They know you have really consumed that content. Maybe they gather that you have a bit of a relationship with the person. who posted. They know you know your stuff because of the way you responded. So now that this is the point where they may say, Oh, let me go see what she's all about.
And they'll go to the profile. And now you have an opportunity, or they'll engage with your comment. So that's the other piece. We always look at it as how do I engage with the poster? But what about the other people already in the conversation, right? You know, and and that's we can only get there if we take a little bit of time.
It does not have to be a lot, but to also see what people are commenting, right? We tend to be kind of quick. Here's the question. I'm going to answer it. Well, how about you just take a quick look at the other responses. It may have been answered 10 times before, right? So now your answer, if it's the same, it loses the ability to stand out.
So not that you don't want to give it, but it's helpful to know, really step into the conversation like you said, JoAnn, as if you were at a party. Right? We don't just barge right in. We might just say, well, what have other people said? You know, or, oh, what did I miss? Right. It's that same kind of vibe that you want to bring to social media.
[00:10:44] JoAnn Krall: Yeah, I mean, it really it's it's so fascinating to me that it's what it has evolved into, you know, just, you know, I think that I think the biggest thing is that like button when that like button was added. It just changed. It changed everything because it's such an easy way. I actually went most of the time.
I never even use the like button. I try to use all the other reactions. Before I make my comment, because it's just, it makes you stop and think, well, what do I really think about? Do I, sometimes I will just use the like, because it's mo it's appropriate. But, you know, being able to really think about what's being said here and just changing up that emoji.
[00:11:23] Deb Coman: Yes, I, I, oh. It does. And I often say, it's not that people don't appreciate likes or any kind of attention on their posts, but a like is a little bit like a pat on the head, you know, like, hey, good job, you know, right? So it's not completely meaningless, but it really doesn't contribute to a conversation.
And what we're working on here with social media is. creating meaningful connection, meaningful conversation that makes a difference. So you stand out and you have, um, more opportunity to explore, you know, and take it further, ask a question in the replies. And so to those who say it's not working for me, they're probably subject to their feed where they're just.
Interacting with what's there and they'll oftentimes will complain about what we're seeing. But that's because we are. That's what we're allowing ourselves to see. And we might be engaging with it, which is going to just give us more of that. So this is a way to take our power back and seek out what we want to see.
Engage with it. So we're actually kind of telling the algorithm. This is the kind of stuff I want to see more of and we will but it also it puts the power in our hands to go seek it out. So if the if the algorithm doesn't get it right, we're not missing out on those topics, right? Or maybe it's hashtags, or maybe it's a brain brands that we want to be.
Yeah. Yeah. in touch with, we just simply have to go search them, you know, or create a list in the platforms that, you know, there's a number of different ways to do that so that you can curate the feed and see what you want to see. And then your time goes a lot, uh, more productively because You're not wasting time hoping to find the conversations you want to find, you're just going zero and right, right into them.
[00:13:33] JoAnn Krall: Right. Right. So one thing I always think about, like a lot of times, and I've done this in the past and this is no, uh, shade, if you will, to content. Creator, content creator, content, um, calendars, I think they're, I think they're important. I think they're essential for some businesses, but I don't think they're essential for all businesses.
And I think that they can kind of lock us into that. Uh, organization and, and then we just focus on that. We put our content out there, but if there's not that second piece of engagement, you know, that's, you know, so we've, we've spent all this time curating this beautiful content and putting things out, which I think on some level it's important.
We need to have some sort of a plan. Um, but if we don't have the other piece, it's just, yeah, I mean, it's just, I think that can be a big, big reason I've, I've seen that with myself. I've. I've spent time, you know, making sure that I'm doing, you know, okay. I have a post for this, this day, this, this day. And what I realized for me.
I'm very much a, I, I want to post based on what I'm feeling in the moment. And I know that's not always effective because then sometimes I'm not posting, but I always make sure that I do engagement every day. And I feel like that has served me more than me putting, you've got to have that content out there, but that engagement is invaluable.
[00:15:00] Deb Coman: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. The engagement will definitely get you. Further along, because here's the thing, people can go seek out your content, even if you're not posting very frequently, they, when they find you, they can scroll through your profile and see your last, however many number of posts, or they can go over to your website and read your blogs or look at the content that you have there.
So there's no lack of content out there, right? So those of us who. Say, well, it's not working. Unfortunately, what they often think that means is I better be posting more, right? Right. Like you said, get back to that content calendar and fill it to the brim. And it's actually the opposite, honestly, because.
Uh, there are people who post so frequently that as consumers we kind of can't keep up with it, right? We can't read it all. We can't comment on all of it. So I would much rather people pay attention to quality always over quantity. Right. And the same when it comes to engagement, people say, well, I don't have time to engage every single day on the platforms I'm on.
I encourage people to pick one. That's a primary channel. Yeah. Where are your. Ideal, uh, uh, your ideal clients mostly and these connections and conversations that you want to have start there if there's extra time great But if there's not you're nurturing one arena so to speak And then set aside a time it could be as little as 15 to 30 minutes three times a week, you will get results with that amount when it's quality.
So it's much preferable to do that than to scroll endlessly for hours and say, Oh my goodness, I didn't like. Enter a single business conversation, or all I've done is watch reel after reel after reel. Like it's easy. We've all done it and we can still do that. But if we want to have results, we want to have that, that Um, targeted time.
Yeah. That we are, are going in with an intention and a focus. Mm hmm. And then we might say, okay, I can scroll endlessly after I get this done. Right. After I pick, and, and I love flexibility as you know, JoAnn. Mm hmm. Like these Systems can really feel very constraining to certain people, right? Um, and when that happens, then you have other things at play that are going to make it even harder.
So I, I know I said to you, I'd like the anti content calendar content creator. Yeah. Yeah. I can do them. I've done them for clients. I don't love it because it does feel super rigid to me. And it's nice to have an idea and a plan, but without flexibility, that's where we, we lose opportunity. We miss opportunity.
We're too busy posting. To engage with anybody else. Yeah. And it's, you know, it's a very, super crowded and getting more crowded all the time. Yeah. So we're, we're in a competition when that's our goal, whereas when we're engaging, it's not about that. It's about conversation.
[00:18:33] JoAnn Krall: Yeah. I can't tell you how many times I've been on, I, you know, I think back to the clubhouse days or just being on like a LinkedIn live.
Um, you know, people that. I've only, you know, maybe recently met or maybe I've met them, not, you know, met them. I say online, um, when I make a comment, they're like, Oh yeah, like they call it out like, Oh, Joanne, she's a great organizer. I mean, it's just amazing how simple that is. They do the marketing for you.
I mean, I think it's great for somebody like me who doesn't like to sell myself. I selling for me is really difficult. Um, so. I'm starting to try and break out of that, um, but you know, but putting information out there and engaging and sharing. easy, super easy. So when you have other people kind of selling for you, it's, it's amazing.
[00:19:30] Deb Coman: I mean, it is, and we should all aim to do that. Those of us who are business owners, look for places where you can do that for your peers. And it's not that. Most people don't care about that, but they just don't think about it. Right. So when you're in a conversation, and I know you and I have done this for each other, and we know one of our topics comes up, bring the person into the conversation.
Right. Say, hey JoAnn, do you have any tips that you could share about organizing here? Right. Um, And you're so right that then people are paying attention. You don't have to like barge in and say, Hey, this is what I do. Like you can do that if it feels okay. And it's natural, but how much easier to come in because someone said, Hey, here's Joanne.
This is what she does. And let's see what you have to contribute here. So that's how we build connection. and expanded even further. And, um, I've met a lot of people that way. I've been asked to be on like leadership positions, invited to be on podcasts, all because of commenting. Because it, it does allow us to build our credibility and to share what we do in a way that doesn't feel salesy, that isn't pushy, but that gets noticed because the thing I say to my clients about this strategy is, as simple as it is, so many people are not doing it.
It's, it's. It's unbelievable, but so many people are not putting any time and attention into this so that those of us who do just will naturally stand out, you know, in 20 comments, we will stand out now. It's not to say some people aren't doing it too. They are. And some are doing it very, very formulaically, like they have the same kind of thing that they say all the time and it's almost a cut and paste type job.
So it's about being who we are and what do we really feel like we want to respond with, what's relevant to what's happening here. Right. And, and what contributes. Like, we don't want to take away from a conversation or steal somebody else's thunder. We want to contribute to the person who put the post out there.
Support them in, you know, it doesn't mean you have to agree with them all the time, but, but, but honor their, their post and like you would in conversation, basically. It's always good to come back to that example. Um, how would you deal with it there? And then the thing that happens naturally is when we, we set that intention to build connection and trust, we tend to end up talking about or, or, uh, revealing, uh, our values.
Right. Because we'll say things and it may be that we're a parent and, and this is very important to us because of our kids or we have animals or we, we support certain organizations that will naturally come into the conversation. And those are things that a lot of people make buying decisions around.
Yeah. You know, how do they pick the organizer they want? Well, this, they all look kind of the same. Yeah. What stands out. Right.
[00:23:00] JoAnn Krall: You know, it always stood out for me when I worked with people in person is, um, when I would show up at a consult and someone had a dog and I wouldn't even say hello to the person.
I'd say hello to the dog first. And I can't tell you how many times people said, I hired you because you were so good to my dog or I could tell you love dogs. Simple as that. I mean, it's just fascinating, you know,
[00:23:22] Deb Coman: I'm not surprised at all. And that's the, the most interesting thing about it to me is these are the things many people think, well, how does that matter?
Right? Like, why would I share that story? Or why would I say what I did before I did the work I do now? Because those are all connection points. If you love dogs, if you, you know, I worked in mental health for a long time before I did this. That's often a connection point where people say, Oh wow, okay. Tell me a little bit about that.
Or I mean, you can know because of the work that I did, I'm a good listener. I'm really good at supporting people. I'm flexible in my approach to people with different learning styles and things like that. That's relevant. And we tend to sometimes think I'm here for business. I have to put on my business hat and everything.
And it's actually more, the more we can just show up as a full person with other interests and, and other, um, passions. Those are the things that people will often hire us because of, you know, so if we
[00:24:31] JoAnn Krall: And on the flip side, it, it, it, Repels the people that we absolutely don't want to connect with right.
[00:24:37] Deb Coman: Absolutely. It does both. So it does a lot of our marketing and our filtering for us. So it's, and it's easy because we're often really passionate about those stories, whether it's about our family or, or what we do with our work. free time. Um, they're easy conversation starters. So it's a very natural way to, um, show up in the conversation.
And I say natural now, not everybody feels like it's natural. Not everybody feels comfortable. So, you know, I, I mean, I want to just make that clear.
[00:25:13] JoAnn Krall: Yeah. What are your tips? You know, cause as you were talking before I was thinking about like, you know, I think we're very similar in the fact that we remember a lot about people like I remember, you know.
I know your dog and I know, you know, I mean, I know you have three boys and there's those details that you can remember. Not everybody's good at that. So that would be one thing I'd love to hear about too.
[00:25:33] Deb Coman: Okay. So I do have a tip for that. And especially as I've gotten a little bit older. Yeah. My memory's not as sharp at this time.
It's always been I take out the notes app on my phone and I will jot things down. Like if I just met you, right. I want to pay attention to how, how do you spell your name? Right. JoAnn, we all know, right.
[00:25:56] JoAnn Krall: Spelled wrong all the time. Right. And that's going to happen. Spell it right. I'm like, I don't get mad when they spell it wrong, but when people spell it right, they get a little checkmark.
[00:26:05] Deb Coman: It's a nice touch, right? I've met and I know a lot of Jennifers, so I won't make assumptions. Do they go by Jen? Is it Jennifer? Is it Jenny? When we learn those things, and we might just see it in social, or they mention it, I make a note of it. I really do until I get to know them better. I then I do remember it, but initially it's hard and it's not always natural and we're meeting a lot of different people.
So if someone mentions their dog or they mentioned like you said about their kids or they like to crochet and that's relevant to me, then I'm going to make a little note of that somewhere. Um, and then you do kind of retain it after a while, but so that you can bring that in so that you can say when, when you post on social media or you're replying on social media, it's really nice to go back to someone and say, how did you make out with that thing that you were really worried about?
Right? We never, I will say this, never share anything online that someone hasn't shared online first. So if you know some detail like that, but you know it on a personal, private level, I would never bring that into a social media. Comment, but if they've said, Hey, I have a surgery coming up. I'm really worried.
It's about X, Y, and Z. It's awful. Nice to show back up later and say, how did that go? Or did you get the job you were applying for? Or People love that and again, we can't fake that interest, but if we can think, you know, this is how we really make connection. I'm going to make more of an effort to bring that into my online presence.
It does matter spelling the name, saying the name. And if you don't remember, it's okay to say, Hey, I don't remember your dog's name. Can you remind me? Yeah. Like, right. So, um, there are some tips like that that you can kind of, you know, make it easier for yourself. We're not like about, we're not talking spreadsheets or anything like that, but just, you know, do what you need to do so that you can be more ready when you're online and just feel, you know, supported to do what you want to do.
[00:28:24] JoAnn Krall: Right. Yeah. Yeah. So. Yeah, we talked about comment. I'm one thing I and I'm sure you think this is just as important and I don't know if we talked about this specifically, but when you make a post and I make a comment. You will reply there. It's fascinating to me. And this goes back to, would you do this in person?
It fascinates me how many people will just hit that like button or they'll ignore it completely. They post and run. Yes. Oh, the post and run.
[00:28:57] Deb Coman: Right. So most people are doing that. They're opening the platform, putting up their post and then they're gone. The only time they come back is they want to see, did anybody engage with me?
So I always say, If you want engagement on your post, you need to give engagement first, like that. And it's not one for one, like these are the only people, but there's a natural tendency for people to want to give back if they notice you've been very supportive on their end. So yes. And as the poster, um, or even the commenter, when someone extends the conversation and then you just leave it hanging there, it's really not.
Um, like you said, anything you would do in real life. Yeah. Um, so, so there's a few things like one, no, normally we're going to be notified whether we're tagged or it's in our feed or sorry, in our commenting, our posts that has comments, but if not go back and look. And like you said, Yeah. Thumbs up. Like if there's really nothing to say.
Okay. Occasionally you could say, yep. I acknowledge. I see your right post.
[00:30:09] JoAnn Krall: Yeah. There is a balance. Yeah.
[00:30:11] Deb Coman: Right. And, and we don't want to only see, thanks so much, Deb. Thanks so much, Susie. Thanks so much, but how about. an extender, what would you do to keep the conversation going? And this is a great question because it does naturally have a lifespan that you can only go so far.
But of course, but at least in the beginning. Yeah. Thank you so much for reading the blog. I'm so glad the number two tip is something that really was meaningful to you. I really appreciate it. If you try it more, let me know how that goes. Like, this is how we converse. The other is just like, oh good, thanks for responding on my stuff.
So, that's how we build relationship. Is we really set the intention to have a conversation that expands, and that continues over time. So like, That's where we're going to look for more posts from that person, right? You know, not just the single one. If we had a great conversation, make note of who those people are and then go look and see what are they posting about?
Is that another conversation you can get into right now? It feels like a rabbit hole, but this is a productive rabbit hole. Yeah. If it's the right topics and the right people. Yeah. And, and that's time much better spent. than the endless scrolling.
[00:31:38] JoAnn Krall: And one thing I will say, because I know there's a lot of people probably thinking, because this happens to me sometimes, like, what if I missed someone's comment?
If I'm commenting on someone's post, and they don't respond, but I see that they've responded to some people, I'm just going to chalk it up to, they didn't see mine, they don't really understand how to filter it, so they make sure they see all comments, because sometimes it just, it all, well not sometimes, it always defaults to relevant comments. And if you look through the relevant ones and you're like, Oh, I answered everybody. You may not have. And so it's like, I don't take offense to that. If they've missed, they've just missed it. It's not like they're posting and running away because they are responding. But if I see somebody respond to like one person in the post and nobody else, then it's a little bit of a red flag that, okay, they're not, they don't care.
They're just like, whatever. I'm just posting to get engagement. But I'm don't really care what that engage. Yes. You know,
[00:32:32] Deb Coman: yeah. And, and that's a good, I love what you're saying about this too, because this is why when I help people create what I call a meaningful connection list for each of us, it's going to be different.
So mine will be the, the industry leaders in my field. Uh, it will be former clients. It will be colleagues who work with similar audiences or adjacent. areas and it will be topics. So that's my list. It's always evolving. If there's someone on there who never enters back into conversation, despite multiple attempts, I got to think about, do I want to keep, Showing up there.
Maybe we do because there are other people still seeing it, but if actually nothing's coming of it Yeah, maybe that's not so fruitful anymore. And I just don't want to spend my time there So what you say is really important now, you're right. Sometimes people just cannot possibly respond to all the comments.
Some people get hundreds and hundreds of comments. Good for them. Um, and they just may, it may not be possible, but if it's a pattern where they're just not, and we see them, there are people who see social media as just a way to broadcast, just a way to post my stuff and let everybody see what I'm about.
That's not a two way communication. Um, so we should think about, you know, we might want to consume their stuff, but maybe we don't want to enter into conversation there. And, uh, and it could be that they missed it, like you said, so we always want to give the benefit of the doubt. Right. Uh, but if it's habitual, these are typically the same people who, and I like to do these.
A couple things I'll let people in on, uh, notice how many followers they have. We might just usually see that like, okay, that's great. They have a lot, a lot, a lot of followers, number following zero. Yeah. Okay. Now, some people, they just don't. Spend time doing that, but zero, like that's just a little bit telling the other is most of the feeds will show you what the person has posted.
And there's another, uh, tab of their replies. So you can look and see. So I know I believe on threads and a few of them, you can see not just what they're posting, but where they're showing up in conversation. Yeah. If that's blank, that's another thing doesn't mean you're not going to engage with them.
It's not like, you know, tit for tat kind of thing, but it can tell you a little bit about that person's approach to conversation and meaningful connection, at least in the space of social media. Right. So, so notice that kind of thing. Notice who else they're connected with. If I see someone you're connected with. I, right away, I'm going to feel like I trust JoAnn if she spends time with this person. I bet that's someone I would like to know too. So I will quickly follow an account like that where I might not have done due diligence of like looking everything up or making a decision because I'm transferring the trust I have in you over to that person.
Exactly how referrals happen, right? Someone says, Hey. You should consider working with JoAnn and they trust me. You're definitely several steps up compared to anyone else that they've been talking with. So, so this is the transfer of trust that we also can share with other people. It's not just about how can I move myself forward, but how can we all kind of benefit from this stuff.
[00:36:19] JoAnn Krall: Right. Yeah. I have a hundred percent. I mean, it's all about the relationships and the, yeah, yeah, exactly. So did, um, we talked about nurturing and, um, but you, we were talking earlier about, or before about your 21 trust building, um, topics. I'm looking at my notes. Yeah. So, um, yeah. Yeah. Like anything you want to share about that.
Okay. Share it all. Cause it's your, it's your freebie. That's your freebie. Right?
[00:36:58] Deb Coman: It is my freebie. So I'm happy to share. It's a free resource. And so like we talked about, so some of the steps here, if you want to start working with this strategy of engagement, which I highly recommend, and again, not just because it's mine, other people are doing this too and they're getting great results.
So you want to schedule some kind of time for when you're going to do this. Just pick a frequency. As little as three times a week for 15 to 30 minutes, like we said, create your meaningful connection list. Who were you looking for? What topics? What conversation? What brands? Okay, open up the platform and look for them.
and respond meaningfully with comments that build trust. So what are the things that build trust? We've talked about a lot of them today. There are more examples in the 21 trust building topics. So things like our values, why we do what we do. Um, the, the Problem in the solution that our clients are dealing with, like these, when we talk about these things, it does build trust.
It lets people know our perspective and know what we're all about. So the trust building topics are useful if you're not sure. What do I say here? And some people say that, you know what? I'm not sure I know what to say that would be meaningful, like not everyone just enters into that easily. So these are meant to kind of spark thought for you, give you some things you can rely on.
You can also work them into your own social media posts, your own emails, like they're multi purpose really. In fact, I think they talk about email. In my resource, but it's for both. It's for everything that we do that. These are the topics that build trust for us that let people know our values. Let us know what let them know what we stand for.
And it's just a little handy thing to have to ask ourselves. Am I bringing these things into the conversation? And you might say, no, and I don't want to do a few of those, that's perfectly all right. It's not for that reason. It's to give you a starting place. Because many of us don't realize like, oh, wow, I could really be talking about that.
I could really be sharing that piece of my life or my passion or. Um, we assume people know because we told them once right three years ago or 10 years ago, like, or it's on my about me page. Well, how many people are going there on the regular, right? So these are the topics and it's people can grab it at DebComan.com/BuildTrust if you're just listening in, um, and it will just give you a starting point and hopefully, like I said, just spark some ideas of what else would you add to that list for you because it's always about personalizing and customizing how we're going to use these strategies.
[00:40:08] JoAnn Krall: Right. I'll put that link in the show notes too, amongst all your other links.
But, um, you were talking about that and, oh, and I was thinking of one thing because I can see people thinking, well, I feel weird going in and commenting on somebody's post. I feel like that's, some people might think that's smarmy in some way, but what we have to remember is that when people post on social media, they are looking for engagement.
So, You're giving them what they, what they need as long as you're like not being promotional and, and not being, you know, icky. You're just being yourself and you're being supportive. I mean, it's amazing how far that goes.
[00:40:46] Deb Coman: Yes. All we can do is be ourselves. And yes. I always say, when people say to me, like, I don't want to be too pushy, I don't want to come across like I'm trying to get something, I, I really do feel, almost without fail, that anyone who says or thinks that is probably not a person who's going to step in it that way.
Right. Right. Because you're already conscientious. Right. You're already aware that you don't want to enter a conversation that way. So you're probably much more likely to stumble in that way. Right. Um, but there are people, there are people who show up only in very popular conversations because they want to be seen and they want to say, I'm friends with this person, so you should trust me.
Yeah. That doesn't feel good. Yeah. To those of us who, who Yeah. You know, don't love that. Well, we just want to be conscientious of, and, and, and all the, when I keep saying that like, how do you be conscientious? You say to yourself, what do I really want from this? And truly we need to want connection first, right?
If we go in wanting the sale, even if we're well intended, it's going to come off salesy. Right. I mean, we all do it, whether we mean to it or not. But there have been. Times, I'm sure, where we've all felt like, oh, I kind of wish I didn't say it that way. Yeah. But on the regular, if you just kind of say to yourself, I want to make a connection here, I want to be supportive, I want to, um, expand the conversation.
Just bring that into how you construct whatever your comment is. Don't, Don't, you know, get stuck trying to make it perfect. This is not about that at all. As we know, your whole podcast is not about being perfect. It's about, you know, getting in there and doing the thing and giving ourselves permission to be messy with your comments too.
Um, but spend a little bit of time on how do I want to show up and. Does this, am I leading with connection and conversation first? And if you do that, you're, for the most part, you're not going to have any trouble showing up that way. Right.
[00:43:02] JoAnn Krall: Yeah. I had a thought and it just went out of my head. We were talking about that.
It'll come back to me. Yeah. Oh, um, one thing. And this is, I don't know if you offer this tip to people, but one thing I do is I say my comment out loud. And I'm like, if that person was sitting right in front of me right now, and I said that out loud, and this can apply. Forget about business. This can apply to the entire internet of people who say awful things, but even if you're not saying something awful, does it feel natural?
Like if I was to say, you know, whatever I'm about to say out loud to you in person, would that feel awkward if you were looking me right in the eye? And not that you're saying anything bad, but maybe you're not. How would you speak it and then write it?
[00:43:45] Deb Coman: Yes, it's so important. And that is one of my tips I've always given from the beginning around writing anything, um, and whether it's email, website copy, landing pages, certainly social media, would you say it this way?
[00:44:04] JoAnn Krall: Yeah, I need to take that advice.
[00:44:05] Deb Coman: Yeah, we all do. And reading it aloud is Absolutely the best way because we're now we're engaging in other sense. Yeah. And we can often pick up on what's usually stilted language is I refer to it as like, we tend to write. As if we're writing for our English teacher and the way we've been taught, and it's not conversational typically.
So we'll say, I do not want to go, like, is that what you're saying to your friend? You're saying, I don't want to go or right. So little things like that, when we can, like you said, bring it down to the way we would say it conversationally. Yeah, I like to envision one single person I'm speaking to that also helps you not speak as if you're standing on a podium, right?
Uh, we tend to say, you know, everyone does this or. Or whenever we like to like, just speak like you're speaking to a person who's right there across the table with you. And yes, I love that tip about, um, saying it loud. So yes, we're not, you know, looking to add a lot of things to make it longer, but that's a really good one to see how does it hit the ear and we can say, just, just say it.
Say it more naturally. Yeah. Don't make it professional. Oftentimes that's what creates distance. Yeah. And sometimes, um, makes it harder for people to connect with us.
[00:45:39] JoAnn Krall: Right. Yeah. Guilty as charged.
[00:45:43] Deb Coman: Oh, same, same always. Uh, it's an easy one. So I, if You know, another thing people could come away with today is go back and look at your website copy.
If you're a business owner, read your about me out loud, read your homepage. Is it all that like, is it conversational? Yeah. And, um, you know, if not. You know, I always encourage people to experiment and have a little fun. Test things out. Like it's not, you know, if I'm not sure about my website copy, I'll take a screenshot or copy and paste before I change it all in case I want to go back.
Right. But You, you're never going to learn if you don't try some things and see what the results are. So the same with your social media content and your commenting, play around with it and see what's working and then always do more of what's working. You know, make it easy on yourself. We don't have to keep expanding into new areas all the time.
We just want to go deeper into the things that we're doing well.
[00:46:47] JoAnn Krall: Yeah. So out of all of that, you say the number one thing is to what's the number one strategy or yeah, the number one strategy.
[00:46:56] Deb Coman: For everything we talked about today, I'm going to say engage more. And I can say, uh, when I ran this, a lot of this became more obvious to me when I ran out of the scheduled content.
So like you were saying, did a content calendar, I had a whole bunch of posts ready to go and oops. Oops. One day. I met the end of the road, what am I going to do? And I just engaged and I just went deeper, deeper, deeper on the engagement. And all of a sudden I was listed by BuzzSumo as one of like a top content marketer strictly because they were looking at engagement only.
So I found it so fascinating.
[00:47:37] JoAnn Krall: I got one of those. Yeah. It's a digital marketing thing. I'm like, Oh, I'm a digital marketer, but yeah, I have because I.
[00:47:44] Deb Coman: Because of exactly, and it's because a lot of people aren't too. I thought it was a mistake, but that so that's what I would say is if you're. Busy spending many, spending hours upon hours creating content, shift some of that time, a greater portion to this engagement.
Yeah. I, I really stand behind it that you will see better results. Your one or two posts that are going to show up when people go to your profile. that you did in the last week, month, whatever, they're not going anywhere, right? They don't disappear if they're on the feed. So, so spend your time engaging instead of thinking everyone's coming around you to see what you're putting up next.
I mean, that's wonderful if that's what's happening, but for most of us, we need to go out there and make the conversation where other people are already gathered.
[00:48:42] JoAnn Krall: Right, right. I would say, I would say it's easier. I mean, I know it's not easier for everybody, but if you are somebody who is, it's natural for you to have conversations, think about that and go that route because it.
It's way easier than trying to come up with your own stuff.
[00:48:56] Deb Coman: Yeah, I think it's a thousand times easier, right? We're talking no graphics, we're talking no going over and over and over as to making it perfect or that sort of thing. Right. It is, this is just show up, be you. And I have a process I work people through who feel like, well, gee, I don't know if I know how to do this naturally, you know, reach out to me because it's things like, what does it make you think about what stories come up as you read their post?
What does it, um, remind you about? And that sort of thing. That's the stuff that you want to bring into that comment. That's meaningful versus love your comment. Great tips. Thanks so much. Like it's just. It's okay. It's better than nothing, but there's so much more opportunity out there. Um, so that's what I would say.
It, and particularly if you're a content creator, not getting a lot of results, not getting new subscribers, not getting, um, client calls from your social, not getting invited to Speak or collaborate or whatever, then what do you have to lose if you were to share more engagement and see what that gets you?
[00:50:16] JoAnn Krall: I love that. I love that. So I am going to put your links, but where is the best place for people to connect with you? Would you say?
[00:50:22] Deb Coman: So I would certainly say grabbing, uh, that free resource if you want to be in my email community too. So it's a great way to kind of stay on top of what's coming up and what things I'm sharing with people.
My website, debcoman. com. I'm on pretty much all the social media channels as debcoman or debcoman writing. So you can find me there. Love to connect. Reach out if you listen to us here. Um, on permission to be messy. I'd love to know that that's where you found me and let's have a conversation online.
It'll be fun.
[00:50:56] JoAnn Krall: Thank you so much. This was fun. I'm you've given me the jumping off point to finally get rolling with this. No, hold me to it now.
[00:51:04] Deb Coman: I'm sure you will. Yeah.
[00:51:06] JoAnn Krall: So that's all we have for you today. I'm wishing you much progress, peace, purpose, and the permission to be messy. Thanks for listening.
